Thursday, November 16, 2006

Loving Someone to Death

This is just something i read in the paper the other day. I seriously dont know how you might think of such a story. Foolishness, Crazy, !!@#$, etc. But, I must say i was touched.. really touched. This seems to be something that is lost on the world.
It started as a note to my wife. And then i thought that since some of you might have husbands or wives and might feel the same way. I'd pass it along. I don't own this story anyway. Charles Boyer does.
Remember Charles Boyer? Suave, dapper, handsome, graceful. Lover of the most famous and beautiful ladies of the silver screen. That was on camera and in the fan magazines.In real life, it was different.
There was only one woman. For 44 years. His wife, Patricia. Friends said it was a lifelong love affair. Soulmates. They were no less lovers and friends and companions after 44 yers than aft
er the first year.
Then Patricia developed cancer of the liver. And though the doctors told Charles, he could not bear to tell her. An
d so he sat by her bedside to provide hope and cheer. Day and night for six months. He could not change the inevitable. Nobody could. And Patricia died in his arms. Two days later, Charles Boyer was also dead. By his own hand. He said he did not want to live without her.
He said, "Her love was life to me."
This was no movie. As I said, it's the real story --- Charles Boyer's story.

It is not for me to pass judgement on how he han
dled his grief. But it is for me to say that i am touched and comforted in a strange way. Touched by the depth of love behind the apparent sham of Hollywood love life. Comforted to know that a man and woman can love each other that much that long.
I don't know how I would handle my grief in similar circumstances. I pray I shall never have to stand in his shoes. But there are moment
s when i look across the room --- amid the daily ordinariness of life --- and see the person I call my wife and friend and companion. And i understand why Charles Boyer did what he did. It really is possible to love someone that much, I know. I'm certain of it.

--- Excerpted from All I really Need to Know I Learnt in Kindergarten published by Ballantine Books, New York

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